Well, after getting a newsletter from my sons school today I hit the roof. His school concert is on and its a money grubbing joke. They have even banned the use of personal videos and cameras under "safety reasons" yet they are more than happy to let you buy there own DVD for $15 and photos for $2 each. Not to mention the $36 fee to attend as a family!!
After contacting them and the school board and basically told tough luck I ended up sending this out to the MP's for education.

Oh, and for the record, my son will be starting at a new school next Monday...I'm sick of this crap!
I am writing as a concerned parent who is fed up with the school that my 7 year old son attends. It has now come to a point where I am, as other parents have done, in the process of moving him to a school that I feel will better support and assist my son as he goes through the most critical time of his schooling life, the first few years.
In May 2003 we moved, as a family, to Victoria from Queensland. He was then enrolled at ********** Primary school (suburb) as we were assured but the staff there that they were a progressive and supportive school which took pride in their curriculum and achievements. It’s now a little over a year later and I am pulling my son out of what has to be the most mismanaged, poorly run, money grubbing, inefficient and grossly inadequate school I have had the misfortune to be associated with. The only shining light of the whole place that is my sons teacher who is absolutely fantastic and sadly the only person who seems to care not just for the students but the parents as well.
In the time he has been at this school there has been:
• Bullying to the point where numerous parents have pulled their children out of the school, many of which were my sons friends.
• An insanely ineffective reporting system that changes every time. There is no consistency that allows the parents to accurately judge if their child is coping
• A headmaster that is never available for discussions regarding complaints
• A curriculum that is inefficient and confusing.
• Absolutely no ability for a parent to put forward any complaints or concerns without being made to feel like they are not welcome or that they have any understanding of their own children.
• The constant demands for money that is almost extortion in its approach. These methods range anywhere from demanding money from parents if they are unavailable to help or attend “working bees” through to the latest gem of holding a full school concert and forcing parents to pay ridiculous amounts to attend. As a father of 4 children I would be up for $36 to attend, then, due to the ban on using our own video and still cameras “for safety reasons” a further $15 for the DVD and a ridiculous $2 PER photo I may wish to get. This would add up to somewhere around the $65 mark just to attend and have a copy of my own sons school concert. This may not seem a lot to you however, for a family with 1 income, a disabled child and all the other expenses involved it just surviving it is simply more than we can afford. When we approached the school with these concerns we were told that that’s the way it is and to deal with it.

I am now dealing with it as this was the final straw. My son will be at another school by the end of the week and I am writing to put in a formal complaint against ********** Primary School. If this is how all primary schools in this state are run than you are not doing your job. I demand that this be looked into and some action taken. It is a disgrace that the education system so loudly praised by the Labor Government has allowed such a pathetic and draconian example as this school is. It is also pathetic that this school has to resort to another form of “stealth tax” to try and survive. I have had enough and feel that this needs to be brought to your attention so that the children at that school are given every chance to succeed, something that is far from the reality that exist there now!
If you have any questions I am certainly available to discuss this at any time.
[Name and contact details supplied]

What a joke. What the hell is the government spending all it's money on? Hospital system is still a joke, police farce would be a more appropriate name and the education system looks like it's going down the drain.

On ya Shane! While i certainly dont lay all the blame at my old highschools feet they were also shocking. In year 9 our maths teacher got some pretty bad illness in the second week of school. From that point on we never had the same substitute for more than one lesson in a row. I seriously learnt nothing in year 9 maths and when we got to yr 10 and were told to do the new work, their response to us not having a clue was "tough luck". This is all probably reflected in the fact that for the last 4 years the schools average TER score has bee low 40's. I definately wasnt an ideal or diligent student but a lot of it does come down to the school environment.